By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two senior officials at the White House National Security Council have left their roles in recent days, according to two sources familiar with the moves, the latest departures for a body that has been cut sharply in recent months.
Ian Bennitt, the senior director for maritime and industrial capacity, and Brian McCormack, the NSC’s chief of staff, both departed last week, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel moves.
Bennitt is expected to leave for the private sector, the sources said, while McCormack is slated to become chief of staff for Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, a Trump ally.
Hagerty’s office had already said last week that McCormack would soon take up the chief of staff role for the senator, indicating his departure from the NSC was imminent. Bennitt’s departure has not been previously reported.
While it was not clear what immediate impact the moves would have on national security policy, the departures follow multiple waves of firings that have at times dented morale and left the NSC a shell of its former self.
Some sections of the NSC have been eliminated, while others – such as those overseeing the Middle East and Africa – have been combined, according to several people familiar with the moves.
Very few senior officials at the NSC who were hired at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s administration remain. McCormack and Bennitt were among the last holdouts.
Bennitt’s departure is particularly significant given the Trump administration’s early focus on revitalizing the U.S. Navy and rebuilding the country’s maritime capacity.
Trump signed an executive order to bipartisan applause in April aimed at reviving domestic shipbuilding and reducing China’s grip on the global shipping industry. The White House had pointed to the establishment of a maritime office at the NSC as a sign of its commitment to the industry.
But by early July, five of that office’s seven workers had departed, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A White House official told Reuters there was now a greater emphasis on maritime affairs at the State Department and at the Office of Management and Budget, a separate White House agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, did not directly comment on the departures, but indicated the administration is still focused on shipbuilding.
“American shipbuilding was neglected for decades under failed presidents like Joe Biden, but President Trump is prioritizing this vital industry to strengthen our country’s economic and national security,” she said in a statement.
The tumult at the NSC began in late March and early April, when several staffers were let go after right-wing influencer Laura Loomer presented Trump with a list of national security officials she perceived to be disloyal.
Trump’s first national security adviser, Mike Waltz, was ousted in May. His standing was diminished after he accidentally added a journalist to a group chat about an imminent bombing campaign in Yemen.
After a slow bleed of firings throughout the spring, the NSC was decimated by a mass purge of employees of various ranks in late May. Upon taking office in January, the Trump administration dismissed almost all NSC holdovers from the administration of former President Joe Biden, meaning the subsequent purges targeted people the White House itself hired.
The NSC, which plays a central role in formulating and coordinating national security policy in some administrations, has now taken a back seat to the Pentagon, the State Department and the intelligence community, according to several U.S. officials.
In recent weeks, the NSC has begun to make some hires in an attempt to rebuild, according to the sources. But senior departures could complicate the administration’s ability to refill ranks promptly.
The voluntary departure of some additional NSC staffers is expected in the coming days and weeks, the two sources said.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)
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